I don't know about breeding them, but they do have planktonic larvae, that may remain so for a month or two before they settle. Although the adults can live in freshwater, I am not certain that the larvae can remain in freshwater or whether they need brackish conditions during development

Clown Goby (Microgobius gulosus) may be worth a try. They are more attractive, exhibit nesting behavior, and have a fully freshwater population (Lake Okeechobee, FL). Check the link here on their reproduction: http://link.springer...4-6193-y#page-1

If you actually join NANFA, a new section of the forum will open up to you. The "Trading Dock" You can make requests for fish there. Maybe one of our Florida members has easy access to them, and wouldn't mind shipping a few to you.

Hmmm,,,, this sounds like a great idea so I did join and paid just now. The board, however, still shows me as a guest. Perhaps something else needs to be done to make the forum realize that the account was upgraded?

No worries. It is not automated. The payment goes to our treasurer then Michael Wolfe gets notified and changes your status. It typically takes a couple days. So there is no malfunction whatsoever. Thanks in advance for your patience.

Great! Thanks for your support and welcome. Please take some time and read about NANFA on the website. http://nanfa.org/ And keep your eye open to info on our annual convention, held in various states across the country(mostly in the east), and be sure to talk with your regional rep. Eastern New York, would be Mike Lucas. I don't much like the guy myself, but he can be somewhat helpful. Keepnatives is his forum handle. http://forum.nanfa.o...20-keepnatives/

Sorry Mike, had to do it considering all the grief I get from Blaylock.

LMAO.... I like your style. (I run a fish forum myself for years.... but I'm not brave enough to make jokes like this.)

Are you saying I cannot have the gobies today?

Never mind....

OFT: Someone may want to spellcheck this automated message:

Thank you for your interest in NANFA. NANFA has recieved your online payment request (e.g. membership, donation, registration fees) and Paypal has indicated that the online payment has been sucessfully recieved.

Mikev, send me an email or a PM with a pdf of your paypal receipt or something and I can make an exception and get you activated this evening (afterwhich I am sure that your fish will arrive tomorrow before the close of business).

Back to the clown gobies, has anybody investigated whether the larvae remain in the lake and successfully transform in fresh water? It might be that the Lake Okeechobee "population" is dependent on new recruits from coastal waters coming up the canals, as several other marine fishes in that lake do. I suppose you could transfer half the fry born in freshwater to brackish water and see what happens in fresh vs brackish. Survival might have as much (or more) to do with the available plankton species (and their nutritional value) as with salinity's direct effect on the larvae.

This is a pure speculation based on limited info, but do we know that the larvae is planktonic?

The abstract of the Springer article says

After spawning, males camouflage burrow entrances with sand and females brood developing young for 4 days. Males continue to guard the covered nests in 50% of observed brooding periods.

I'd think that guarding fry for four days would only make sense if the fry is large enough to do a substantial development during this time?...which kind of implies that the fry is large enough to start with (cf. most rhinogobius, fry is vulnerable for the first 4 days or so, and guarding would have made a big survival difference...not that they do it.)

Cattails do grow in low salinity brackish water too, so its unclear whether the pond is FW or not, and the article does not say. For fish the size and mobility of clown gobies it is unlikely that their populations would be maintained year after year through recruitment solely from marine sources. The canals require a lengthy upstream trip. Obviously, they were able to colonize the lake that way in the first place, but it seems it is unlikely for them to maintain the populations that they do there solely through migration. The other fishes that do this (snook, mullet, tarpon, needlefish) are much stronger swimmers and longer-lived.

The article does mention that the young school in the water column along the shoreline after leaving the nest and have fully formed fins and eyes, matching the positions in adults. They are not clear on whether there is a planktonic phase or not, but it seems to imply that there isn't much of one and that they transform into miniature versions of the adults rather quickly.